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Late visual artist's work a 'tremendous gift'

Bruce Head's catalogue spanned five decades

By: Adam Wazny

Posted: 02/11/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Bruce Head displays one of his works. Vibrant colours were the central theme in Head's paintings. (RUTH BONNEVILLE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

An acclaimed member of the visual art scene in Manitoba was celebrated as a pioneer Wednesday night.

Bruce Head, whose paintings and sculptures anchored both the local scene and the Prairie modernism movement, was the subject of a memorial service at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. His work spanned more than five decades, as he moved through various styles and techniques to become one of the most significant artists in Canadian art history.

Head died Dec. 30 from complications of diabetes at age 78.

Speaking to a full house in the Muriel Richardson Auditorium, WAG director Stephen Borys called Head's vast catalogue "a lesson in Canadian art history" and a "tremendous gift to our community."

Head went through the fine arts program at the University of Manitoba in the early 1950s, where he met up with fellow creative minds Tony Tascona, Winston Leathers and Frank Mikuska. The four of them attacked each work with a passion, using each other as motivation to produce exceptional work.

Mary Reid, curator of contemporary art at the WAG, shared a story about how members of the group loaded up their paintings and drove out to Ottawa on a whim.

Selling paintings out of the back of a car to the National Gallery of Canada or the Montreal Museum of Fine Art may not seem as glamorous as working out of a studio apartment in Greenwich Village, but Reid said those kinds of stunts put Head above the rest in this region.

"The four of them really embraced the abstract in every way, and started playing around with it in a way the Prairies hadn't seen before," she said. "They were the forerunners for the style in Western Canada."

Head's incredible body of work was brought to the Winnipeg public in November 2008 in a life retrospective called Headspace. It remains the largest one-man show the WAG has ever put on.

"He found his true calling in the studio," said Amy Karlinsky, the curator of Headspace.

Vibrant colours were the central theme in Head's paintings. He had a knack for bringing out an infectious energy, whether developed through a series of small acrylic markings or through sharp bends of a shaped canvas. That life was a mirror to the man, friends and family shared Wednesday night.

His most visible creations in Winnipeg are just blocks from the WAG. The large yellow and orange canvas display at the Woodsworth Building is a Head production, as is the massive circular concrete sculpture located in the underground concourse at Portage and Main. Entitled The Wall, the work stretches 130 metres around and is three metres high. It's believed to be one of the first public art pieces commissioned by the city.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 11, 2010 A7

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